Quotes from Tell No One

Harlan Coben ·  370 pages

Rating: (91.1K votes)


“Memories, you see, hurt. The good ones most of all.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“I wish i could tell you that through the tragedy i mined some undiscovered, life-altering absolute that i could pass on to you.I didn't.The cliches apply-people are what count,life is precious,materialism is over rated, and the little things matter,live in the moment-and i can repeat them to you ad nauseam.you might listen, but you won't internalize.Tragedy hammers it hm.Tragedy etches into your soul.You might not be happier.But you will be better.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“There should have been a dark whisper in the wind. Or maybe a deep chill in the bone. Something. An ethereal song only Elizabeth or I could hear. A tightness in the air. Some textbook premonition. There are misfortunes we almost expect in life—what happened to my parents, for example—and then there are other dark moments, moments of sudden violence that alter everything. There was my life before the tragedy. There is my life now. The two have very little in common.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“I kept hearing that "better to have loved and lost" bullshit. Another falsehood. Trust me, it is not better. Don't show me paradise and then burn it down”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“Sex is for anyone; the aftermath is for lovers.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One



“The sun was now in its death throes, bruising the sky a coiling purple and orange.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“Well-meaning friends ' often the worst kind ' handed me the usual clich+!s, and so I feel in a pretty good position to warn you: Just offer your deepest condolences. Don't tell me I'm young. Don't tell me it'll get better. Don't tell me she's in a better place. Don't tell me it's part of some divine plan. Don't tell me that I was lucky to have known such a love. Every one of those platitudes pissed me off. They made me ' and this is going to sound uncharitable ' stare at the idiot and wonder why he or she still breathed while my Elizabeth rotted.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“but when in doubt, you might as well keep an open mind.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“Todavía oigo aquella sandez del «mejor haber amado y haber perdido». Otra mentira más. Créanme si les digo que no es mejor. Que no me enseñen el paraíso para cerrarlo después.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“I'd always hated running. Born-again joggers described how they got addicted to the rapture of running, how they achieved a nirvana known as a runner's high. Right. I'd always firmly believed that--much like the high of auto-asphyxiation--the bliss came more from a lack of oxygen to the brain than any sort of endorphin rush.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One



“I blinked and the images were gone. But I remembered how the laugh and the howl and the splash would ripple and echo in the stillness of our lake, and I wondered if ripples and echoes like those ever fully die away, if somewhere in the woods my father's joyful yelps still bounced quietly off the trees. Silly thought, but there you go.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“The pain flooded in again. It was always there, of course. Through the shaking hands and slapping of the backs, the grief stayed by his side, tapping Griffin on the shoulder, whispering in his ear, reminding him that they were partners for life.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“When I got home, I poured myself one last quick drink. I took a deep sip and let the warm liquor travel to destinations well known. Yes, I drink. But I’m not a drunk. That’s not denial. I know I flirt with being an alcoholic. I also know that flirting with alcoholism is about as safe as flirting with a mobster’s underage daughter. But so far, the flirting hasn’t led to coupling. I’m smart enough to know that might not last. Chloe”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“Children view their parents as both intrepid and omnipotent.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“Should I take him to Benny’s?” Wu asked. His voice had a slow, odd cadence to it, like a character from a Peanuts cartoon. Larry”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One



“Do you still think I’m the most exciting, wonderful creature on God’s green earth?” “Oh, yeah,” Linda said. “Me too.” Shauna smiled at her. “I’m a narcissistic pain in the ass.” “Oh, yeah.” “But I’m your narcissistic pain in the ass.” “Damn straight.” Shauna moved closer. “I’m not destined for a life of easy relationships. I’m volatile.” “You’re sexy as hell when you’re volatile,” Linda said.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“When Carlson and Stone first burst into Rebecca Schayes’s studio, Dimonte had not been happy to see them. There had been the usual local-cops-versus-feds macho-turf posturing. Few things unify the FBI and the local authorities, especially in a big city like New York. But Hester Crimstein was one of those things. Both sides knew that Crimstein was a master obscurer and publicity hound. The world would be watching. No one wanted to screw up. That was the driving force here. So they forged an alliance with all the trust of a Palestinian-Israeli handshake, because in the end, both sides knew that they needed to gather and nail down the evidence fast—before Crimstein mucked up the waters. The”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“Perhaps it had something to do with the case becoming too neat, all the evidence suddenly lining up and cooperating with their theory. Or maybe his doubts were based on something as unreliable as “intuition,” though Carlson had never been a big fan of that particular aspect of investigative work. Intuition was often a way of cutting corners, a nifty technique of replacing hard evidence and facts with something far more elusive and capricious. The worst investigators Carlson knew relied on so-called intuition. He”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“I thought about my mother and wondered what she realized about her mental health, if she was even capable of engaging in serious introspection. Probably”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“Sex is for anyone; the aftermath is for lovers. Pretty”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One



“If you cross the street to avoid a gang of black teens, you’re racial profiling; if you don’t cross because you’re afraid you’ll look like a racist, you’re racial profiling; if you see the gang and think nothing whatsoever, you’re from some planet I’ve never visited. What”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“What made me pause here was the pure dichotomy.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“There are some places the mind should not go; it gets steered there anyway.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“You might argue that I’m nesting myself on an awfully slippery slope. I would agree with you, though I might counter that most of life is lived out there. The problem was, there were repercussions when you lived in the grays—not just theoretical ones that taint your soul, but the brick-and-mortar ones, the unforeseeable destruction that such choices leave behind. I wondered what would have happened if I had told the truth right from the get-go. And it scared the hell out of me.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“So I moved toward Tyrese. He gave me the ghetto glare. On the street, it fazed me; in here, it was like the big bad wolf blowing at the brick house. “Was your son born at this hospital?” I asked. Tyrese didn’t reply. “Was your son born here, yes or no?” He calmed down enough to say “Yeah.” “Is he circumcised?” Tyrese relit the glare. “You some kind of faggot?” “You mean there’s more than one kind?” I countered. “Was he circumcised here, yes or no?” Grudgingly, Tyrese said, “Yeah.” I”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One



“Shauna and Linda rent a three-bedroom apartment on Riverside Drive and 116 Street, not far from Columbia University. I’d managed to find a spot within a block, an act that usually accompanies a parting sea or stone tablet. Shauna”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“I stepped out of the car. Mothers and nannies ambled by, pushing complicated baby strollers that fold and shift and rock and play songs and lean back and lean forward and hold more than one kid, plus an assortment of diapers, wipes, Gerber snacks, juice boxes (for the older sibling), change of clothing, bottles, even car first-aid kits. I knew all this from my own practice (being on Medicaid did not preclude one from affording the high-end Peg Perego strollers), and I found this spectacle of bland normalcy cohabiting in the same realm as my recent ordeal to be something of an elixir. I”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“An outsider might claim that this made sense, that Shauna was giving the sister and brother some space during this tender reunion. That outsider wouldn’t know Shauna from Cher. Shauna was wonderfully consistent. She was prickly, demanding, funny, bighearted, and loyal beyond all reason. She never put on masks or pretenses. If your thesaurus had an antonym section and you looked up the phrase “shrinking violet,” her lush image would stare back at you. Shauna lived life in your face. She wouldn’t take a step back if smacked across the mouth with a lead pipe. Something”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“If I did, they’d be irrelevant. You know that. I don’t do well locked in a cage, Beck. I need the stage.” “Nice mix of metaphors,” I said. “At least it rhymed.” I”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“You remember my friend Wendy Petino?” “Fellow model,” I said. “Flaky as a Greek pastry.” Shauna”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One



About the author

Harlan Coben
Born place: in Newark, New Jersey, The United States
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I know.'

No, but do you really know? I mean here’s the deal, what do most guys want from a woman? I’ll tell you what we want. We want a warm body to sleep next to, preferably one with a nice pair of tits, maybe someone who’ll cook for us and fuck us on a regular basis. Pretty simple, huh? Now, what we don’t want is someone who’s going to come in and disrupt our lives and steal our souls. That’s what we fear most. We call it our freedom, but it’s our souls we’re talking about. You following me?'

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I nodded again.”
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